CNS was established in 1952 as a successor to the CCP's International News Agency. According to the
Jamestown Foundation, CNS is "the CCP's main propaganda organ targeting overseas Chinese." In 1990, CNS personnel were dispatched to the U.S. to found
SinoVision and
The China Press to counter negative perceptions of the
Chinese government following the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Since 2001, CNS has held a biannual Global Chinese Language Media Forum in China (also known as World Chinese Language Media Forum), a large global summit of Chinese media leaders. In 2007, CNS established the China News Service Overseas Center, which provides news reports, editorials, and layout for overseas Chinese media outlets. In 2017, a former editor-in-chief and
Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of CNS until February 2015, Liu Beixian, was charged with taking bribes during the
anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping and expelled from the CCP. In 2018, CNS became part of the
United Front Work Department (UFWD) when its host organization, the
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, was folded into the UFWD. The same year, a deputy head of the UFWD stated that "[a]s an important propaganda unit of the United Front, CNS must adhere to the concept of 'newspapers run by politicians' and thoroughly carry out political awareness work. CNS's important mission is to do good united front propaganda work within Overseas Chinese affairs." In 2019, CNS began a campaign to increase its influence on overseas social media. According to
NPR and the
Australian Strategic Policy Institute, CNS was involved in targeted
disinformation and
propaganda campaigns during the
2019–20 Hong Kong protests. That year, CNS released a public tender to increase its
Twitter followers. In June 2020, the
United States Department of State designated China News Service, along with other Chinese
state media outlets, as a
foreign mission. During the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, CNS repeated unsubstantiated Russian state media claims that the
Bucha massacre was staged. In 2023, cybersecurity researchers found that CNS had established
sock puppet accounts on Twitter for
influence operations in Latin America. == Activities ==